oboe

Meaning

A soprano and melody wind instrument in the modern orchestra and wind ensemble. It is a smaller instrument and generally made of grenadilla wood. It is a member of the double reed family.

Synonyms

hautboy

flute

🪈

hautbois

pipe

clarinet

piccolo

reed

woodwind

philharmonic orchestra

fife

oboist

orchestra

Translations

hautbois

Oboe

oboe

oboe

hobo

oboé

όμποε

oboè

obua

οξύαυλος

clarin

autbòi

أوبوا

مزمار

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈoʊboʊ/

Etymology

An earlier form in English is hautboy, but the spelling oboe was adopted into English ca. 1770 from the Italian oboè, a transliteration in that language's orthography of the 17th-century pronunciation of the French word hautbois, a compound word made of haut (“high, loud, high-pitched”) and bois (“wood, woodwind”).